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Issa lawsuit: Attorney alleges open sex in the hot tub every night

The lawyer representing defendants in the lawsuit filed by SuperClubs chairman John Issa alleged that guests reported seeing open sex in the hot tub every night at Hedonism hotel.

Attorney Reginald Clyne of Clyne and Associates asked Issa if anyone at the hotel monitored two related blogs -- Hedo Blog and Hedo Chat -- where there were constant references to sex in the hot tub.

Issa replied that if his staff saw such references, they should check and make sure it did not happen. But he insisted: "They can't act on the basis of a statement that's not sworn. We couldn't go to the security man in that area and fire him on the basis of a blog."

He was giving a follow-up deposition in the Circuit Court of the 11th Judicial Circuit in and for Miami-Dade County, Florida, in pursuance of the lawsuit he filed in the US, claiming that he was defamed by e-mails traced to computers originating in that US state.

Clyne: "Okay, let me back up. Say you have a blog, and I can show you some of them. You have little travel blogs and they say what they did every day and every night at Hedonism, and every night they say that they are at the hotel, say in a one week's span, they go to the hot tub and there's sex going on. Now, your management sees this Hedo Blog because it's part of the Hedo website. You don't think that's enough information, knowing that sex is going on every night in your hot tubs, to stop it?"

Issa: "You just said 'knowing'. Anybody can post anything to a blog, just as people hide behind names and posted lies about me. So what he would have to do is check what is happening. He can't take that as evidence because it's on the blog. He has no certainty that the person is telling the truth. I don't know what identity on a blog... if you have the person's name and address, where you can call them. I don't know.

Clyne: "Do you think, as a chairman, that one of your employees should, at least, have someone, a security guard by the hot tub, based upon just the blog, and making sure this doesn't happen night after night after night, year after year after year?"

Issa: "Do you know there isn't one?"

Clyne: "Well, if he is and you see it on the blog, that they had sex that week, don't you think you should do something to stop it?"

Issa: "Didn't you hear the answer to the previous question, that I am not certain if that is so? Someone can post anything to a blog, but if the security guard there sees it, and is not reporting it, he should be let go."

Clyne: "Okay."

Issa: "And that's a service company, so it's easy to just tell the security company, we don't want him around anymore. We don't have to worry about the labour laws."

Clyne: "Do you think, at least, at a minimum, and I have given you information today, I can show you blogs where people..."

Issa: "You have not...sorry, sorry."

Clyne: "Do you think, at a minimum, as a chairman, you have a moral and legal right... duty to do some sort of investigation?

Issa: "I'm telling you...

Joe DeMaria (Issa's lawyer) objects.

Issa: "I'm telling you, what you have shown me today is totally hearsay without sources and dates and times. The management constantly deals with stopping unapproved activities taking place in public areas of the hotel."

Clyne: "What is your procedure to make sure that activities that are illegal or immoral are not taking place on the property?"

Clyne: "Whoever is the manager on duty should be walking around the place, and the assistant manager should be walking around the place, and if they see something, if they don't feel senior enough to tell them, call someone else and so on."

Clyne: "Any other ways that you have to prevent drugs, open, public sex occurring on your property, prostitution, besides the manager walking around? Any other procedures you take?"

Issa: "Well, we don't have cameras on the property because that would interfere with people's privacy. We don't know if a man is there with someone else's wife. I don't want to end up in court being sued for destroying a marriage..."